Acer and HP patent rumble rumbles on

Lawsuits aplenty

A patent dispute between two of the world's top computer vendors continued apace yesterday, with Acer confirming that it planned to once again counter sue Hewlett-Packard (HP).

Taiwan-based Acer, which looks set to be ranked third in the world among PC vendors following its imminent takeover of Gateway, said it had filed patent infringement complaints in the US against rival HP.

The latest lawsuit, which was filed on 30 October in a US District Court in Wisconsin as well as with the International Trade Commission, relates to alleged patent mischief with Acer PCs, servers, and peripheral devices.

Legal punches have been flung in both directions for the best part of a year in the row over alleged patent technology infringements with neither Acer nor HP looking willing to stagger out of the boxing ring.

In March this year, HP kicked off the row by suing Acer for alleged infringements of five US patents related to processor tweaks, power-consumption technology, and DVD editing tools.

It hoped to block Acer from punting certain products that included notebooks, desktops, and media centre systems in the US.

HP then added fire to the patent spat by filing another lawsuit in April involving power consumption, bus operations, resolution detection, and two concerning temperature management in laptops and desktops.

Then, in July, Acer stepped in with its own tongue-poking counterclaim in which it said HP had violated some of its antenna and DVD-ROM head technology.

Echoing the exact words of an earlier Acer statement, the firm said about its latest counter punch: "With or without a legal proceeding, Acer persists to take all necessary steps to protect and enforce its patented technologies." ®